plagarism

Got curious today about the Washington Post/Red America/Domenench [sp] debacle, so I poked around a bit. Two observations: people with strongly held political beliefs are ready to believe all kinds of nonsense. At first the left thought it was a right-wing conspiracy, and now the right thinks the event was a setup by the Post to discredit it. Funny how we're all wired the same way--paranoid--regardless of our political beliefs. Probably time to revisit Hofstader's The Paranoid Style in American Politics, which I have a copy of but confess to not having read. [My bad.]

The other point is a bit different, but also a broad social one. Older people (anyone over say 50) I think doesn't really grasp how far this country has moved in its acceptance of cheating. Most research I've seen indicates that at least 30% of all resumes have fabricated material on them, which, if you think about it, is an astounding fact. Upwards of 80% of students think it's ok to cheat. My experience bears this out. When I taught two years ago, many of the students simply lifted material without attribution, and when I called them on it they acted offended. My point is that the notion of cheating as morally ok is so deeply entrenched today that it would be foolish for the old-line institutions such as the daily papers or any other entity where honesty still matters to not thouroughly vet their new hires. The cognitive dissonance in America (we all believe in heaven but cheating/stealing/etc. is ok) is rapidly becoming a roar. Boomers, ugh.